33 1/3 series announces call for proposals; will Lenny Kravitz’s Circus get passed over again?

The venerable 33 1/3 book series, which gives authors the chance to take an in-depth look at individual albums, has opened up the path to publication with an all-call for proposals! Now’s your chance to finally get all those musings on the importance of The Backstreet Boy’s opus, Millennium to the masses! Want to convince folks that Lulu is a misunderstood masterpiece? Go for it! Feel ready to canonize Lana Del Rey? Step right up!

If you want to give it a go, the series publisher, Bloomsbury (which acquired Continuum last year), is asking interested parties to submit the following:

• Your professional CV/resume, including full contact details;
• A draft annotated table of contents for the book and an approximate date of completion;
• A draft introduction/opening chapter for the book, of around 2,000 words;
• Your analysis of the most relevant competing books already published about the artist in question or the scene surrounding that artist — and how your book will differ;
• A one-page sheet of how you would help Bloomsbury Academic market your book — websites/forums/listservs you’d contact directly; any artist involvement you might expect; any college-level courses on which you think your book could be used, and so on;
• Up to 1,000 words on which book, or parts of books, already published in the series you would aim to emulate on some level
• Copies of any fan fanfic, unread blog posts, or diary entries you’ve written relating to the album*

Clare Fischer, a Grammy-winning pianist, composer and arranger who crossed freely from jazz to Latin and pop music, working with such names as Dizzy Gillespie, George Shearing and Natalie Cole as well as Paul McCartney, Prince and Michael Jackson, has died. He was 83.

Fischer died Thursday at Providence St. Joseph’s Medical Center in Burbank of complications from a heart attack he had two weeks ago, said family spokeswoman Claris Dodge.

[…]

Regardless of genre, Fischer’s arranging and composing invariably possessed a rich harmonic palette, one that attracted and influenced other musicians.

“Clare Fischer was a major influence on my harmonic concept,” Herbie Hancock said in a statement on Fischer’s website. Hancock credited Fischer’s arrangements for the 1950s vocal group the Hi-Lo’s with significantly influencing his 1968 recording “Speak Like a Child.”

I remember studying the solar system in elementary school, circa third or fourth grade, maybe. I remember the project — the one where we each chose a planet and researched the hell out of it, then painted a few Styrofoam balls and stuck them in a shadow box. Something along those lines. Of course, for the sake of fairness (I suppose), we couldn’t choose our own planets. We had to draw slips of paper from a bowl. I drew Mars. Fuck Mars. It’s just close to Earth and was maybe at one point inhabitable. Lame.

Neptune’s rad, though. Homemade instruments, drum feedback, interrupted radio broadcasts and the like. I’m talking about the band, not the planet, in case you didn’t catch that abrupt subject switcheroo — but you never know, maybe they play electric collage songs out in space too. Since 1994, Neptune have worked with a variety of lineups — the latest includes Jason Sanford, Mark Pearson, and Kevin Micka — and experimented with discarded materials and found noises to create a surreal sound, perhaps fast-forwarding to the year 2845. On March 13, they’ll release their 10th LP titled msg rcvd via Northern Spy Records. Just a regular release, nothing beamed down from space. They’re touring too, but it looks like they’ll be skipping extraterrestrial venues. Just zooming through Europe. Bummer.

Shabazz Palaces, the world’s greatest hip-hop group? Probably not, but maybe! Black Up was pretty much the best, so there’s that piece of evidence. Besides, Shabazz Palaces say they’re the best themselves! I mean, I haven’t asked them, but, you know, I bet they would, I guess? I’m really the only one pushing hard for this “Shabazz Palaces, the greatest hip-hop group” thing. Those guys probably don’t really care one way or the other. They’re too cool for that nonsense.

While they don’t care about all that, they are going on tour over the next few months. Some of these dates will be in Europe, while some will be in… not Europe! Specifically, the United States. Does anybody in Europe think Shabazz Palaces aren’t the best? They’ll be proven wrong. What about the naysayers in the United States? Also proven wrong! As for me, I’ll be proven right. All will be justified. But mainly just that one thing.

SCREAMING FEMALES’ FIFTH LP IS CALLED UGLY AND IT’S COMING OUT ON APRIL 4 AND THEY’RE RELEASING THE FIRST SINGLE ON FEBRUARY 11 AT THE DON GIOVANNI RECORDS SHOWCASE IN BROOKLYN WHICH WILL KICK OFF A WEEK-LONG TOUR OF FREE SHOWS AT RECORD SHOPS AND ONE BOOK STORE!!!!!!!

Alright, enough with the caps — they’re obnoxious. The “It All Means Nothing” 7-inch on Don Giovanni Records will also include a version of “A New Kid” recorded live at WFMU, and you’ll only be able to snag it during this run of shows.

Hey readers! So, like I mentioned to you yesterday, J. Spaceman’s latest Spiritualized album, Sweet Heart Sweet Light, is coming out in April via Fat Possum. Like pretty much all Spiritualized endeavors, the thing took… a while. According to his press peeps, J. spent two years in Wales, L.A., and Reykjavik recording his usual be-all-end-all gesamtkunstwerk, then spent another year after that mixing it (over and over and over again, presumably) at home in his trademark sunglasses and footie pajamas. It certainly has taken dudes longer to make records that are presumably much bigger turds than this one is going to be, but I mean, still… that’s kind of a while.

But then, all this foot-dragging got me to thinking: is everything a person does just automatically taken for granted as being amazing when it takes you nine times longer than its supposed to to do things??? I think I could be on to something here, don’t you? So, with that in mind, I’m going try an experiment. I’m going to literally spend the next TWO MONTHS typing out the spring Spiritualized tourdates that coincide with this record’s release. Seriously. I’ll type a date out; go to Starbucks for a bit; come home and take the dog out; maybe write the name of the city and venue before bed; wake up the next day and delete the whole thing in a fit of artistic frustration; and repeat. By the time I’m done, you should be looking the most EPIC list of North American dates you’ve ever seen in your entire fucking life. But I’ll let you be the judge. See you guys in seven or eight weeks!